Some History Questions

[dans]

Anyone a history of moviemaking buff? I remember that at one time, big movie stars signed exclusive contracts with their studios, but I don't know a lot of the details...

My question is this... Linda Turner (the Black Cat) was a big star. If I wanted to write a multiverse story where in the making of a new movie she costars with another big star who is also a costumed crime fighter, how would I get them in the same movie? They are barely acquainted through Hollywood social life, and each knows a little bit about the other, but they work for different studios and never expected to work together. I guess the two studios might be working together? Did a joint movie like this ever get produced? Maybe one studio has a temporary cash flow problem so they are renting out the service of one of their more expensive stars? Any other thoughts?

[reichsmark]

Sometimes stars were "lent" to other studios. This was usually done for a fee paid to the lender. Basically renting the star.

[dans]

Jul 10, 2023 2:49:47 GMT reichsmark said:

Sometimes stars were "lent" to other studios. This was usually done for a fee paid to the lender. Basically renting the star.

I thought that might have been the case. Thank you!

[lawrenceliberty]

Often, studios would "trade" stars in the sense that MGM would allow "their star" Clark Gable to appear in a Warner Bros movie in return for Warners allowing "their star" Bette Davis to appear in an MGM film.

[dans]

that would work, too. Thank you!

[redsycorax]

If you want more detail, dan, try here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_system_(filmmaking)

[dans]

Who were the first big male movie stars to wear very revealing costumes on screen in the US? Something that movie goes would have seen before around 1945...

I thought I remembered seeing Flash Gordon wearing a swimsuit, boots, and crossed bandoliers and nothing else in one of the serials, but I can't find the image anywhere. The first Tarzan movie was around 1918, so there was an early example, but I want more of a costumed hero-style example than the jungle hero style. Thanks!

Were there ever any serials about John Carter before 1945?

[redsycorax]

The Motion Picture Production/Hays Code was introduced to self-police movie content after 1930, after the Catholic Legion of Decency formed to pressure the fledgling industry over what it considered 'salacious' content, which included 'suggestive' outfits. The Production Code Administration was formed in 1934 to provide focus for the MPPC to enforce its supervision over cinematic content. "Forbidden' content included profanity, homosexuality, discussion about sex, cross-cultural/interracial sex and making fun of the clergy, while care 'needed to be taken' when it came to depictions of criminals, arson, medical procedures and passionate kissing. No slinky or suggestive outfits were allowed in terms of dancing and adultery and extramarital sex had to be shown to have negative consequences.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Production_Code

Warner Brothers Bob Clampett wanted to do an animated version of John Carter's adventures in the 1930s. Perhaps on this Earth, he might have done so. That's the only reference I can find to plans for a pre- twenty first century John Carter film project. United Features Syndicate produced a John Carter of Mars series for only sixteen months (1941-3), before it was shuttered due to lack of popularity:

jimhillmedia.com/lost-cartoons-the-animated-john-carter-of-mars

[dans]

Yeah, I had Sophie be a big fan of John Carter in the magazines. I was thinking of using the Charles Atlas ads instead, though.

Thanks!

[dave]

Who were the first big male movie stars to wear very revealing costumes on screen in the US? Silent film star Douglas Fairbanks as well as other stars of the 1920's. Almost any adult (20+) in the 1940's would know him and other stars like him. He was a favorite of my father who was only 20 years old in 1939.

[dave]

And Douglas Fairbanks Jr was a highly decorated US Naval officer who worked FDR as well as commanding PT Boats and other mall craft in the Mediterranean and Pacific Theaters of Operation

[dans]

History question for anyone - time frame is mid-50s. An English noblewoman is engaged to a US College professor, and they are maintaining separate households in a small college town in Indiana until they get married. She gets a regular allowance as part of her father's estate. How does the money get from England to her? Would it be through a wire transfer from the bank her family's estate uses to her Indiana bank? Transfer to an intermediate bank and then another transfer to her bank? He dad sends her an envelope with cash in it every month?

[reichsmark²]

You might have been able to do it through Western Union. I sent money overseas that way in the 90s.

[redsycorax]

Currency transfers as such date from 1874. Dan is right, it would have been through wire transfer/telegraphy. A person would pay a specific amount to a telegraph company, who would then send a telegram authorising the institution on the other end to pay a specific sum to a person on the other end. There was a transaction fee involved. As for Western Union, it was founded in 1851 and had a market dominant position when it came to telegraphy. However, note that given the rise of the telephone, telegraphy went into a dive from the 1940s onward, although it was still used for currency transferals until the seventies and the spread of consumer electronics and the rise of electronic funds transfer instead.

[redsycorax]

As for currency exchange, it was governed after World War II by the Bretton Woods Agreement, which permitted some fluctuation in currency rates. Foreign exchange rates were adjudicated by a relatively narrow set of bureaux in London, New York, Tokyo, Berlin and Paris as Germany and Japan recovered from the Second World War and became major industrial and cosmopolitan cities again. As for stock market investments, the NYSE was quite bullish for a long period (1954-69), which meant that it was the place to be, while the London Stock Exchange was in a long decline during the period.